Since the twin clarion calls from COP15 and the latest IPCC report to renew our focus on the earth’s biodiversity, the corporate and finance worlds have mobilized millions in resources to scale on-the-ground, nature-preservation and -regeneration projects and nature-based climate solutions around the world. Two companies that launched nature-restoration funds prior to this year’s groundswell have recently expanded their efforts.
L'Oréal names 3 new recipients of Fund for Nature Regeneration
Biochar is recognized by the IPCC as a viable solution with the
potential to remove 1-2 billion tons of CO2 emissions from the planet’s
atmosphere each year. | Image credit: NetZero
According to a 2019 UN
report,
one million species are already threatened with extinction and 75 percent of the
earth’s surface has been significantly altered. With the IPCC calling for
more global cooperation in biodiversity-preservation
efforts,
L’Oréal is accelerating its longstanding commitment to biodiversity beyond its
own value chain. The cosmetics giant has chosen three new recipients of its
Fund for Nature
Regeneration
— for their innovative approaches to carbon capture in soils, reforestation and
mangrove restoration; and for their potential to have a far-reaching, positive
impact on the environment and local communities.
“At L’Oréal Groupe, our environmental duty goes beyond our business. It is our
responsibility to address today’s most pressing challenges, like the erosion of
biodiversity and its social and ecological impact,” said Rachel
Barré, Environmental
Leadership Director at L’Oréal Groupe. “The L’Oréal Fund for Nature
Regeneration is an important vehicle in our efforts towards a more sustainable
future for all. With the new projects signed, our aim is to help restore the
planet’s biodiversity and preserve its abundant ecosystems.”
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The L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration was created in
2020,
endowed with €50 million for impact investment. In 2021, the company announced
the first two recipients of funds: the Real Wild Estates
Company, the UK’s first rewilding
business; and RIZE carbon financing, which helps
accelerate France’s farming sector towards sustainable practices. The fund
is managed by Mirova Natural Capital — a pioneer in natural capital
investment.
Through the fund, which has committed €22 million in projects to-date, L’Oréal
is engaging with partners with proven expertise to support in the regeneration
of degraded lands and mangroves, as well as the restoration of marine areas and
forests. The latest projects were selected following due diligence and based on
key criteria including business model readiness, economic viability, and
positive environmental and social impacts:
NetZero is a French climate venture operating in
tropical areas such as Cameroon and Brazil that specializes in long-term
carbon removal from the atmosphere by turning agricultural residues into
biochar. Biochar is a stable, non-polluting carbon that can be added to improve
degraded soil. It is recognized by the IPCC as a viable solution with the
potential to remove 1-2 billion tons of CO2 emissions from the planet’s
atmosphere each year.
ReforesTerra aims to restore 2,000
hectares of land degraded by
pastures
— one of the greatest challenges facing the Amazon — in one of the largest
Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) projects in Brazil. The
project will engage with smallholder farmers to directly plant new trees and
create a favorable environment for natural regeneration in the lower Rio
Jamari basin of Rondônia, covering 75 percent of the project area. The
remaining 25 percent will benefit from strategic planting in small clusters that
attract wildlife to naturally propagate new forests.
Mangroves.Now will facilitate community-based mangrove-restoration projects
in South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka
— the region that has been the most affected by mangrove deforestation in the
last 30 years. Mangroves.Now will provide access to financing for small-scale
projects with local NGOs, with a goal to restore approximately 20,000 hectares
of previously degraded land and provide equitable benefit-sharing with local
communities.
“Our vision for value creation is one where financial performance and
environmental and socio-economic impact are inextricably linked,” said Muriel
Atias, Chief Investment Officer at
L’Oréal Groupe. “The L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration is a catalyst for
sustainable value creation through private capital, enabling the acceleration of
environmental solutions with long-term benefit. Through our impact-investing
strategy, we can play an important role in tackling biodiversity loss with
expert local partners.”
Apple expands Restore Fund for carbon removal
A Restore Fund project in Paraguay aims to generate income from a sustainably managed timber farm on one side of the road, while preserving the surrounding natural forest on the other. | Image credit: Arbaro Advisors
Meanwhile, Apple recently announced a major expansion of its Restore Fund —
doubling its total commitment to advancing high-quality, nature-based,
carbon-removal projects. First launched in
2021
with an up to $200 million commitment with Conservation International and
Goldman Sachs, the Restore Fund is now set to grow with an additional
investment from Apple and a new portfolio of carbon-removal projects. Apple
created the Restore Fund to encourage global investment to protect and restore
critical ecosystems and scale natural carbon-removal solutions. This approach
also helps address residual emissions businesses cannot yet avoid or reduce with
existing technologies.
As part of the expansion, Apple will invest up to an additional $200 million in
the new fund, which Climate Asset Management — a joint venture of HSBC
Asset Management and Pollination — will manage. The new portfolio also
aims to remove 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year at its peak,
while generating a financial return for investors. For Apple suppliers that
become partners in the fund, it will also offer a new way for them to
incorporate high-impact carbon-removal projects as they decarbonize.
“The Restore Fund is an innovative investment approach that generates real,
measurable benefits for the planet, while aiming to generate a financial
return,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environment, Policy and Social
Initiatives. “The path to a carbon-neutral economy requires deep decarbonization
paired with responsible carbon removal, and innovation like this can help
accelerate the pace of progress.”
Apple and Climate Asset Management are taking a broadened approach with
prospective projects, pooling two distinct types of investments: nature-forward
agricultural projects that generate income from farming practices, and projects
that conserve and restore critical ecosystems that remove and store carbon from
the atmosphere. This unique, blended fund structure aims to achieve both
financial and climate benefits for investors while advancing a new model for
carbon removal that more fully addresses the global potential for nature-based
solutions. All Restore Fund investments are subject to rigorous social and
environmental standards.
Already carbon neutral for its corporate operations, last year Apple called
on
its suppliers to become carbon neutral across all Apple-related operations by
2030 — including all of their direct and electricity-related emissions (Scope 1
and 2). High-quality carbon removals will help achieve this goal by offsetting
any direct emissions that cannot be avoided or reduced in the short term.
Suppliers are first expected to reduce emissions by transitioning to renewable
energy,
improving energy efficiency, and abating direct emissions. Earlier this month,
Apple announced over 250 manufacturing partners have committed to power their
Apple production with 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
Located in Brazil and Paraguay, Apple’s three initial investments with
Conservation International and Goldman Sachs aim to restore 150,000 acres of
sustainably certified working forests and protect an additional 100,000 acres of
native forests, grasslands and wetlands. Together, these projects are forecast
to remove 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year
by 2025. Carbon removal is critical to addressing climate change and achieving
global climate goals, as leading scientific bodies like the IPCC have
emphasized.
To monitor and measure the impact of Restore Fund projects, Apple is deploying
remote-sensing technologies — including Space Intelligence’s Carbon
Mapper and
Habitat
Mapper,
Upstream Tech’s Lens platform, and
high-resolution satellite imagery from Maxar — to
construct habitat and forest carbon maps of the project areas to quantify and
verify the projects’ carbon-removal impact over time. Apple is also further
exploring the use of the LiDAR
Scanner on
iPhone to enhance monitoring capabilities on the ground.
The Restore Fund is part of the company’s comprehensive roadmap to become carbon
neutral for its entire supply chain and life cycle of every product by 2030.
Apple’s plan is reduce 75 percent of all emissions by 2030 and balance the
remaining emissions with high-quality carbon removal.
Controversy continues to swirl around the carbon-offset market — due to questions about its efficacy in its existing form to help abate catastrophic climate change, and also due to companies’ and countries’ overreliance on offsetting vs working to eliminate their emissions at the source. Regardless, replenishing the world’s biodiversity in and of itself is critical to ensure our own sustainability in the long term.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Apr 25, 2023 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST